


Under Lock And Key

by Rotschild



Series: Monsters and Heroes [6]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 21:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14065650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rotschild/pseuds/Rotschild
Summary: Getting a good nights sleep is impossible if the Reaper has plans for you. Jack shouldn't be mad.  He gets to be an action hero after all.





	Under Lock And Key

**Author's Note:**

> Awkward continuity errors?  
> A love for drama and weird situations?  
> Who, me?!

Jack opened his eyes in fast reaction to a noise that may or may had not even been real. Sometimes he had still problems with raging nightmares that translated poorly into the waking world, but also was he a - how did Jesse always call him? A 'grossly paranoid grumpy old shit'. 

So forgive him for checking it out, anyway. 

Out on a Mission he wasn't even sleeping in a secure area, just an abandoned gasoline station in the southern american outlands, in search of an deserted Talon base that somehow seemed only to exist in hushed whispers, like 'some guy told me's, of the rare local population. Right within the wilderness where nothing was but sand, dust and a lonely road flanked by bone dry and naked trees, the red sand got absolutely everywhere. Itched a hell of a lot more than ticks and flee bites. 

With a huff Jack sat up and rolled his head while stretching his arms wide over his head. Of course he got jolted instantly by that little nanite nightmare of his. 

But the nanites felt unusual agitated and hummed like angry bees under Jacks skin. He felt awake and nervous the instant he sat up. Jack learned fast to trust his little monsters. If they acted weird, there always was something about to happen. Like his old joint pains told him when the weather was turning. 

Maybe Jack got to shoot some bad guys right before breakfast. What a pain. 

He didn't bother to grab his Pulse rifle, not for some horror movie inspired bimbos hiding behind trees like targets in a training simulation, and decided to make good use of his a lot handier pistol instead. He stayed low to the ground, out of sight of any window and crouched by the back door. 

He listened intensely for any kind of noise, but there seemed to be just a lot of rodents around. Nothing like footsteps or the typical noise of someone trying too hard to breath silently. Still not convinced Jack gave the door a little tap and let it swing open. The rusty hinges cried like a dying animal and made his teeth ache. It should have been loud enough to alarm some straying thugs that someone was indeed inside. Again, Jack listened. 

Still, there was nothing around but a lot of horny insects. Jack hummed lowly and leaned over the threshold, looked right and left to the rows of dead wood. It wasn't that dark out there, so he could see pretty well. The light of the full moon between some lonely drifting clouds was strong enough to make even reading possible. That's why Jack rested in that damn ruin in the first place to get a dark enough space to actually fall asleep in. 

But out there were no footsteps, no breathing and no cocking guns. Jack lowered his revolver and stood up straight as his back began to hurt from crouching uselessly in the doorway. "Huh..."

As he turned around, he stood suddenly eye to eye with enemy number one, so unexpected, he of course should have expected it. If that made any sense. 

The Reaper lifted his right claw in greeting and tilted his head. "Hiii there, Jacky!", he drawled right before he grabbed Jacks collar and threw him effortless out of his own resting spot. What a rude arsehole. 

Jack landed hard on his back, rolled over his own shoulders and ducked instantly back into a low crouch. "Seriously, Gabe, what the hell?!"

The Reaper didn't give him too much time before he came at him again, his arm lifted for a punch that would be tricky to avoid. Lucky for Jack he did spar often enough with that guy. Even if it was frustratingly unfair that he now just could smoke out of Jacks infamous death holds. 

"Oh, don't be like that, Jonathan. I just wanted to say hello with you here and all. What are you snooping around here, anyway?", chatted Gabriel curiously as if they just had a nice talk over a bottle of a good whiskey. 

Easily he dodged one of Jacks attempts to bring him out of balance. No footsteps, no heavy breathing. Why 'didn't' Jack expect this? 

"I guess, I was searching for you", he answered honestly and locked Gabriels balled fist in his hand while his elbow knocked hard against the bone white mask. 

The Reaper got knocked back pretty hard and dissolved into smoke in a dramatic special effect that was so artsy and made Jack look so much like some kind of invincible super-hero, that Jack instantly smelled the bullshit. 

"Who is watching?!", He grumbled at once annoyed beyond belief. The Reaper laughed like a maniac in open amusement and materialized again right behind him, locked him into a hug that felt like a warm apology till he lifted Jack right off his feet and squeezed all his insides together. 

"Aaw, just Talon base", he drawled right into Jacks ear, which felt like a filthy whisper. "Sombra will give them a good satellite image, night-vision, no sound, the full cinematic view of me knocking you around a bit."

Jack twisted around looped his arms around Gabriels middle and used the momentum to throw him right over his shoulder. Again the smoke bullshit happened, like Gabriels landing was hard enough to break various bones. Well, even as an participant it looked pretty amazing. Jack should make sure not to look too surprised, who knew what images that Sombra could get out of this. 

"Can I get some screen caps of this for my portfolio?", he snorted and and made himself ready for Gabriels retaliation. Meanwhile he watched him amazed in his display of frustrated annoyance as the Reaper stood up and dusted himself off in jerky movements that looked soo angry, in full contrast to his relaxed deep voice. "Hah, you wish, boy scout."

Then he halted in his tracks and tilted his head. "Well maybe I can get my hands on a copy from the assessment unit. You know, for future reference and research reasons", he said and sat it in his sarcastic air quotes, before he rushed in again to 'knock Jack around a bit'. 

Jack noticed it was harder to 'remember' Gabriels fighting style than actually fighting him. He wasn't sure if he was made fun of or not, but Jack watched Gabriel in pure amazement as he again dissolved in a black puddle of thick nanite smoke after only a mediocre punch to his mask. "You... What the hell did you even 'tell' those guys?"

And it was right that moment that Jack got the feeling Gabe just didn't take off his mask, not only to fuck with Jack, but that absolutely nobody evaluating the footage got a chance to see him laughing his arse off. 

"Oh I didn't have to tell them anything. They have all these useless stations, specialized in data mining and creating, analyzing plus evaluating statistics."  
Gabe laughed like a loon and lashed out at him again. Jack ducked his attempt to grab him in a fast combat role, lifted in the same movement his abandoned gun from the ground and shot the Reaper right six rounds in the back.  
Not as elegant as Jesse, since he wasn't used to fight with weapons under seventy kilograms in weight, but accurate enough to fell a screeching smoke monster like a tree. At least for the moment. 

"'That'", he drawled, "Was for my arse in Egypt."

While Gabriel screeched his curses, Jack threw the now pretty useless gun at him and clipped him with it right at the back of his head what made Gabriel nearly stumble face first into a tree. "And 'that' is for your bullshit performance. Who do they think I am? Captain America?!"

Gabriel was so obviously in an enormous strop as he materialized again, that Jacks skin prickled hot as he tried not to laugh. "Well", the Reaper spat prickly and rushed in the fight again. "It isn't my fault they noticed your higher healing rate. Or your better than average eyesight", Gabriel hissed with wide spread claws. "Or the new stability of your bones. Or-..."

Jack lifted his hands in defeat and to knock against Gabriels wrists to deflect his still horrific and dangerous looking slashes. "Yes, stop, yes, I get it!" He still didn't like to think of all the big and little changes to his physiology. "But that doesn't explain why you show up in the middle of the night just to fuck with me?!"

It was pretty funny how Gabriel suddenly got out of balance and stumbled nearly without any effort from his side right into Jacks outstretched fist. It didn't even look effect full. Just pretty daft. Jack felt the wild laugh press against his diaphragm as he tried not to bow over. 

"'I' am here", growled the Reaper as he got himself under control again, even if he sounded like an annoyed and sulking five year old, "To test a theory for them!"  
Jack had instantly a pretty good mental image about that Talon theory. A lot of it had to do with needles, a secret Overwatch lab and human experimentation. "... Please don't tell me they think Angela got creative... "

Gabriel shrugged and prowled in a lazy circle around Jack who cautiously watched him for a new try to beat him down. "With her brilliant mind?", Gabriel said of course without a thought about Angelas outstanding work ethics or her fear of failing her patience. "Sure she would, like anyone that curious."

He chuckled darkly and lowered himself in a squat while swirling nanites gave him a nightmarish aura that made even Jack instantly nervous. "Because", he snarled as the monster broke out of his human form. It made him look like a beast, like some horrific abomination that combined bear and werewolf and crept right out of a black void. "'You' were able to get a part of 'me'. And Angela, the lovely good doctor, surely just found out with it what made me so... 'indestructible'." 

The growling monster POUNCED in a movement so lightning quick, Jack nearly wasn't able to see it coming. Again the Reaper engulfed him in a powerful hug, which knocked Jack right off his feet and all breath out of his lungs. "M- must have a- a hell of a lot to do with your massive ego...!", he gasped and let out a pained moan as Reapers sharp claws pressed his shoulders to the ground. 

Before Jack could even move a single muscle, the massive beast closed its jaws around his throat and pressed down hard - but without any teeth involved. What surely looked 'spectacular' from a watching perspective, was more of a minor inconvenience till Gabriel started to shake him until Jacks teeth rattled in his head. 

Again Reaper lifted him like a toy and threw him like a puppet. Jack's whole body was whacked against a tree and while his head throbbed quite a bit and blood oozed out of his nose from the rabid hell hound shake, it had to be a part of Gabriels masterful performance - because the bone dry tree, on impact, snapped like a twig and Jacks body pressed an interesting silhouette into the shattered wood. 

Again it looked from afar like so much powerful intent to harm, that it made Jack look like some kind of invincible super hero for standing up again. Jack could appreciate that, even if he now felt pretty dizzy. Gabriel chuckled deep and satisfied as he lifted one of his claws to rub some of Jacks blood off his face that sprinkled it like bright red freckles.

"Well, yeees", the Reaper purred with so much satisfaction, he looked like a well fed predator. "They send 'me' to test you out, because they know I'm petty enough to love the thought of just punching you to death. So I will try exactly that. And I will fail. And because I, a known super soldier and inhumanly strong scary smoke monster, will fail, no other poor soul will try."

Jack blinked.  
He just... needed a moment to process again. Because- ... 

"You are not only a pretty petty bastard, Reyes, but an exceptional brilliant one at that... Wow..."

Gabriel bared his many horrific rows of teeth in a grin that was much too wide for his monstrous face. "Huh, yeees", he chuckled darkly and lifted his claws in a taunting gesture that looked for Jacks addled brain more like a thinly disguised 'come-hither'. "Now get your arse here, Jonathan, I have some stuff to snitch."

Jack snorted while still feeling his face heating up. To get out of the wooden imprint was a bit harder because his Jacket tore in several places and stuck to the wood. First he had to stretch his sore muscles. But then, without any warning, he charged forward with a scream of war, grabbed what he could of the scary smoke monster and slammed it right into the ground.  
Not that Reaper was intimidated. With a punch to Jacks jaw he got his hold to slacken and in a blink Jack was again right under him, pressed down by his weight and suddenly still and wide eyed as a deer caught in headlights. 

The Reaper seemed pretty satisfied with this outcome. "Now listen", he growled low while being bent over Jack and watching. "Talon plans an attack on Gibraltar Watchpoint before the UN can decide if Overwatch is needed again", he spoke so low and fast, Jack almost had problems to catch everything. "They will hunt you. Maybe not 'you' after this little performance, but they will make an effort to split your little group of holiday heroes apart and pluck them one by one if needed. Sombra got instructions to get into Athena and crack the Overwatch ComSignals when the attack is a go. Meanwhile doctor O’Deorain will try anything to get a sample of you to re-create the results of the SEP she couldn't get out of me, because I'm not longer 'human enough' for her experiments to make any sense."

That were... really bad news. Really. Bad. 

But still, Jack was a lot more interested in the way too bitter sound of Gabriels voice. Forcefully he rammed his knee right up into the heavy body of black mass and grabbed for the throat. Again their positions were reversed in a pretty spectacular move of powerful momentum and brutal strength of an enhanced human body. "You know you will always be 'human enough' for me, right?", Jack asked and felt somehow pretty nervous. Gabriels many eyes blinked slowly till he dissolved lightning fast and locked himself again around Jack in a crushing hug - that somehow felt a lot more real and heart-felt than all of their contact before. "Thanks", huffed the Reaper exasperated right into his ear and made Jack shudder with ease. 

Jack made his decision right that moment, let himself again get pressed down, this time with a strongly twisted arm on his back. "There's a necklace under my collar", he mumbled into dusty brown earth that irritated his nose. While Jack struggled to get out of the Reapers grip, Gabriel took the hint and dipped his claws into his collar. It didn't took much strength to rip the fragile ball chain and get it free from Jacks throat. 

Curious he dangled it in front of his mask. Jack couldn't see his face, but he heard Gabriels sudden and breathless gasp. The Reapers grip on Jacks twisted arm slackened noticeable. "You alright?", he mumbled into the dust, right before he got enough room back to knock the heavy Monster right off of him. 

The next moment Jack stood again, while feeling somehow even more shaky, and waited for the Reapers next attempt to trash him. But Gabriel somehow seemed way too distracted. Motionless, except for his heaving shoulders, he crouched on the ground and stared at the ball chain that held three dangling little mementos. "You said", The Reaper croaked in a way too deep voice to sound in any way human. "I wasn't found... You said you weren't able to find me, or-... or anyone..."

Jack had thought Gabriel would just call him a sentimental old man again. A misjudgment on his part that got pretty painful pretty fast. The beast charged at him with wide open nightmarish red eyes, grabbed him and slammed Jack right into the ground. There was so much power involved, Jack was sure Gabriel broke at least three of his ribs.  
Still tangled in the Reapers claws, now resting on Jacks chest, laid the ball chain that held his and Gabriels dog tags and one lonely little key. 

"You said there was nothing! YOU SAID THAT!!", Shrieked the Reaper out of his mind with grieve and sorrow. Before Jack could say anything, Gabriel lifted his upper body up just to slam him down again. Jacks head collided again heavily with the ground and something warm and wet splashed his nape. "THERE WAS 'NOTHING' LEFT. HOW DID THEY GET THIS?!", the monstrous figure lashed out and its claws struck the left side of his face with force, ripped deep into his skin and shattered Jacks artificial eye, while he lay gasping without a way of defending himself. "WHY DIDN'T THEY GET 'ME' THEN?!", The Reaper roared and rammed his balled fist again into Jacks twitching body, before his head lowered - seemingly without any rage or strength left. With short hitching breaths the beast rested its heavy skull right over Jacks wildly beating heart and just howled its pain out. It sounded nothing like Jack ever heard before in his life. 

Jack didn't even notice that he held his breath. As he let it out he felt himself nearly deflating in shame and hopelessness. The strength and will to fight seemed to leak right out of his sore and quivering muscles. The remaining sight of his right eye locked on Gabriels heaving and shuddering body, that literally began to melt above him, as the Reaper lost his concentration to even look anything even resembling a human. 

Jack held as still as he could. Tried to give Gabriel even the slightest illusion of privacy. Motionless he observed his unstable form and the unbecoming noise of merely held back tears. 

In the end Jack didn't care anymore about the act.  
Who 'cared' about Talon, anyway? 

Slowly, because he didn't know if he was even aloud to touch, he lifted his right Hand. He left Gabriel enough time and room for a rejection that never followed and rested his hand right over the Reapers massive skull. Tangled his fingers in whirling black swarms of agitated nanites. 

There they laid for a while. Without movement and without a sound. It was Jack who broke the silence, again, just with an apology for a shattering heart. 

"I should have asked a hell of a lot more questions", he rasped lowly while he drew with his fingers slow little circles over Gabriels unstable surface. "I know now. I didn't think it necessary at the time. They told me you died. I didn't want to know any details. Nothing mattered like you did. I just got out and-... I just left. I am sorry. "

He swallowed the blood that dripped down his throat from his still bleeding nose and concentrated on lying perfectly still. Just wanted to be a warm and maybe even a little cozy spot for Gabriel to rest on. Just for a while. 

"Angela gave me my last mementos... Of us. Of the base and our history. Just some little mindless things that could be saved out of fireproof lockers. They rest in a locked box in the ruins of a long abandoned farm in Indiana."

Gabriel lifted his head and watched him out of hollow red eyes, while his body still hitched in broken hiccups that didn't suit a monster build from violent nightmares at all. 

"It's just fair that you get your share of them", Jack rasped with a crooked smile. Even if it hurt pretty bad... He wasn't able to hold any of the injuries the Reaper caused against him. Jack kind of deserved it right now. 

Time passed while their eyes locked and Jack ruefully observed the still deep seated wrath and sorrow in his motionless opponent. As Gabriel got himself under control again, he sat up straight and knelt over Jack, red eyed and dangerous, snarling still like a monster even as his body formed to his usual human shape. "They know, we have a history. After all, they know 'everything'. They are even counting on it."

Jack just waited for Gabriel to elaborate, suddenly feeling tired out to his bones. He felt like a beaten dog and he surely didn't want to move a finger anymore if he didn't absolutely have to. "They are counting on 'what', exactly?"

Gabriel tilted his head unnervingly slow like a reptile. "That our relationship ended badly enough, that I still would punch you to death, even when I get reminded. Or especially because of it."

Ah. Jack nodded slowly. "Did it, then?"

Jack huffed a weak laugh as Gabriel hummed in thought. "Sometimes I really badly want to. Sometimes I want to rip you open and see you bleed. Sometimes I want to hurt you the way I am hurting every second of every day since I woke up like this."

Jack furrowed his brows and tried to swallow the feeling of sudden irrational anger. "You are hurting...? Why are you hurting!?"

The Reaper leaned over him like a wild predator, just waiting for an opportunity to bury its teeth in the throat of its prey. "My body rips itself constantly apart just to heal and form again. How do you 'think' does that feel? Not being whole? Not being... human?! Feeling yourself fall apart into your own tiniest 'components'?!"

Jack opened his mouth without knowing what the hell to answer to that. What Reapers abilities felt like and did to him... He never had given a thought to that. Jack felt hot shame creep in his face, because he never had thought it necessary to ask about Gabriels... state of being, either. It had always looked so natural and effortless, that Jack never assumed it could 'be' anything else. 

Jack felt his biggest fault crush down over his head like a marble white gravestone. "I-... ", he croaked and had to clean his throat for his voice to sound stable. "I don't ask enough questions."

"Oh yes, you are pretty useless", the Reaper bit instantly back at him. Jack clenched his jaw shut and of course his thoughts went to the days of Overwatchs fall. He caused it, he always knew that.

Gabriels talons nicked his right cheek as he caressed Jacks face without laying down his battle gloves. Jack didn't care. Feeling like choking he turned his burning face right into Gabriels hand, anyway. 

"Your biggest mistake was 'always' to project your own martyr-complex and that daft loyal honesty onto all of your superiors", growled the Reaper in frustration, but Jack felt instantly as irritated as he felt tired of fighting. "You don't talk about yourself there, do you?", he rasped instead. Gabriel laughed loud and ugly, while he clenched the ball chain that he still held in his free Hand. "Of course I do!", he roared nearly in hysterics and with a simple gesture dissolved the mask that hid his face from Jack. "Did you ever stop to count how often I disappointed and failed you? Even before the fall? Before 'Overwatch'?!"

No.  
Of course not. 

Jack was so surprised he didn't know what to say to something as daft as this. Ultimately he lifted his hands to Gabriels face and caressed the dry and grayish skin with his thumbs. Gabriel suddenly stilled and didn't twitch a muscle. Jack just showed his crooked and apologetic smile. "I never did", he muttered without being able to look away. "The only times I felt disappointed were the moments you tried 'so hard' to warn me. And I didn't listen. Because I was so angry and hurt that you didn't trust my judgement at all."

He sighed heavily.  
"And you were so right not to do so..."

Gabriel stared down at him. Jack saw him swallow in a so human gesture of uncertainty, that Jack wanted so badly to hug him close. "You are useless", Gabriel said again and Jack responded instantly with a snort. "I guess you are right."

The Reaper blinked unevenly down at Jack till, suddenly and with a deep sigh, his shoulders sagged down. Slow his head sank back down on Jacks chest, till his talons buried themselves under his body and squeezed tight. With a barley audible hitching breath he turned his face into the crook of Jacks neck. 

Jack closed his eyes slowly, so relived he could have wept in Gabriels arms. Lowly he hummed a deep satisfied note and lifted his arms the same way and closed them strong around Gabriels neck, even if the pressure hurt. Everything was alright like this. 

Gabriels nanites swarmed out, hugged Jacks form and caressed his skin. The alien blob in his body moved, like being pulled back to Gabriels who wouldn't accept it back. Jack felt the sudden cold heat like frost burn as the little nightmares closed his wounds and filled the cracks in his hurting ribs. They even did something to his left eye, even if Jack still couldn't see with it. 

And Jack was so in love it burned his insides. 

He didn't think as he tangled his fingers in Gabriels long curls and pulled him back just far enough to have the room to kiss him utterly senseless. 

Who even was Talon, Jack didn't care.  
All that he wanted he held in his arms.  
All he would ever need.  
For the love of god, he never wanted to stop.  
He couldn't. 

"...What are you doing, you-...", mumbled Gabriel against his lips, but Jack only leaned in again to pull him back. Strong Jack closed his arms around Gabriels heavy body, as he sat up and not even for a second stopped kissing him. Jack felt hot and alive and like his bones were on fire. 

Gabriel held onto him like a drowning man and Jack couldn't let go. "Taaalon", Gabriel growled, but quivered just so lovely as Jack nipped at his exposed throat while his hot breath ghosted over his cold skin. "Gabe... Even if this disaster of a wrestling match was to be saved, I-..."

"Oh it is, pretty easily, Jonathan", huffed the Reaper, still so sensitive to Jacks touch that it was hard to concentrate. Between their tangled bodies he slipped something small and round, not bigger than a golf ball, in the pocket of Jacks thick leather jacket. Jack blinked irritated up in Gabriels face as he huffed a deep sigh and gripped his wrist behind Gabriels back. "You thrive on killing, don't you!?"

"Even if it's just the mood", Gabriel chuckled with a wide teasing grin. How did this guy always charm him so easily? Jack wanted to kiss him again. "What's the plan?"

Unexpectedly Gabriel leaned right into the warmest and gentlest hug they may had ever shared. Jack swallowed as Gabriels arms closed around his shoulders and head, tugged him close. It even got better as Gabriel nestled his cheek against Jacks temple and warmed himself on Jacks prickling hot skin. "This time, you will have to be just the backstabbing bastard, that I always told them you are."

Jack blinked. "You lost me."  
Gabriel sighed deep, scratched lovely little marks onto Jacks sensitive nape and made him shudder in awe as well as blissful silence. "That thing in your Jacket is your most important life insurance. Never leave base without it."

"What is it?", Jack asked, feeling suddenly pretty curious. But Gabriel faltered to explain - and that was instantly a sign that it was probably something bad. Never letting go of him, Gabriel cleared his throat. "Sombra made it. It's an EMP bomb."

Jack got a bad feeling were this was going.  
"This thing... It works against you?"

Gabriel huffed, but in a less confident way as before. "It's a 'blast'", he drawled to make up for it. "Sombra has a weird little hideout. who knows what she's doing there, but some day she came back with 'that'."

Gabriels expression morphed into pure distaste.  
"Its reach is weirdly small, like a bubble of some sort. No idea how exactly it works, but in an early test it deactivated my entire arm."

That was serious and sounded dangerous enough for Jack to consider never to use it. "What happened", he asked, his tone dry and earnest. Again Gabriel huffed. "Well, it kind of... dusted off, I guess. The nanites deactivated. It didn't even make a sound. My arm just... disintegrated."

Jack was so horrified he felt his stomach drop.  
"What the-... What did it even 'feel' like? Did it hurt?!"

Gabriel tried really hard not to look as uncomfortable as he was obviously feeling.  
"Not... really...? Not more than everything else, but... You know the feeling of your arm falling asleep so deep you aren't sure if it's even there anymore? Mostly it felt kind of like that, I guess. If I was feeling anything, it was more like... 'white noise and needles'."

It didn't sound so bad. But Jack still never wanted to use it. "But it was still just an arm, Gabe. Not a brain - or a conscious mind!", cut Jack in as Gabriel already opened his mouth. "I know it probably makes no difference if it's your hand or your head since you... ", with furrowed brows Jack looked down to his own chest, where he could feel the nanites move under his skin. "Since you aren't -...", Jack tried 'really' hard to find the right words there, "... coming in damn 'parts' anymore like I do."

All of Gabriels body was pretty much made out of the same stuff after all. Neither flesh, nor bones or fat and organs. "But that doesn't mean-... Gabe, this basically 'kills' you. Even if it lasts only for a second or so... What happens to 'you' meanwhile?"

And Gabriel just shrugged in answer, which made Jack bristle in sudden anger. "Its ten minutes, though", corrected Gabriel in a casual tone and tilted his head. "Not longer. Not that bad. But who knows? We will test it in a few minutes."

"The hell we will! ", growled Jack and bared his teeth. "Oh yes, we. will, Jacky", Gabriel growled right back, a whole of a lot more intimidating than just a grumpy old man. Even a grumpy and angry old soldier. Jack knew immediately, if he wouldn't activate that thing, Gabriel would force him to or even do it himself. "Gabe... ", he pleaded, but the Reaper only answered in aimless anger. "We 'have to' see what it does! In an observed attack on orders I won't be able to play it nice. I will have to fight in first row, because I am their biggest asset. I will be forced to kill, even. This puny little thing can stop me and they have to see that Overwatch 'has it'!"

Jack swallowed and locked his arms even stronger around Gabriels back. "Aren't you worried they see this and instantly will try to... 'improve' you...?", he murmured with a dark look. "They could-... I don't know, thinking of labs, needles and experiments makes me feel ill."

"Still?", Gabriel laughed nervously and obviously tried to make light of the possible horror he was about to face. "Your trypanophobia is showing there, old man. Anyway, make it fast. I have absolutely no Idea what will happen. But I make sure to tell you later. Maybe I write a book about it."

Jack snorted and tilted his head back to look up in his face. "From a wanted terrorist, that threatens his publisher in submission? Guaranteed bestseller." But he still didn't want-... 

"Gabe...!", he pleaded again, but the Reapers only answer was a blank stare. Gabriel was convinced it was absolutely necessary. So of course Jacks feelings-y objections just didn't count. Jack huffed and leaned in against Gabriels shoulder. "Is there someone I should inform of your location?", he asked, but Gabriel shook his head instantly. "No. Sombra knows. She's in the vicinity. Somewhere."

He sounded and looked like he expected her to jump every moment into existence and boop his nose in laughter. Well, she 'was' the invisible girl after all. "Alright. How do we do this?"

Gabriel shrugged again. "Huh. Fuck, I don't know. Say some mean stuff that makes you look bad ass and then scatter me?"

Jack laughed against his chest.  
"You are ridiculous."

So, bad ass and backstabbing was Jacks only direction. That he could do. 

In a manoeuvre made out of pure force he clipped Gabriels chin, stunned him just a second for Jack to grab him and swirl him to his feet. And as they both stood, Jack grasped that black coat and rammed Gabriel with a shoulder to his chest right backwards into the nearest tree. 

Gabriel got his wits back to growl a complain - that Jack instantly kissed out of him. Mean. Talon was an unwanted bystander and if Jack could make that weird evil council of doom even just slightly uncomfortable, he noted it as a win. 

Win-win since he got to kiss Gabriels lights out again. 

"Next time you come looking for me", he growled deeply against the Reapers dry and open lips. "Come without an audience of weird out of control scientists."

Gabriel was so lovely in a daze. Crowded against that tree he could do nothing but bury his talons in the leather of Jacks jacket and let himself be kissed absolutely 'senseless'.  
Jack chuckled softly, the most happy he felt in literal years. Grinning sharp like a loon, he let Gabriel catch his breath and narrowed his eyes as he leaned in again to kiss Gabriels cold cheek. "I love you", he hummed in deep satisfaction right into the Reapers ear, "And I want you, still."

Gabriels body locked dead still, while a breathless little gasp tickled Jacks nape. It had to be the loveliest sound Jack had ever the pleasure of hearing. Maybe his mind was also just a little addled with humanly weird lovey-dovey hormones. Of course that special circumstance made what he was about to do even harder. 

Jack leaned back to look deep in Gabriels way too many astounded red eyes. In earnest Jack bared his teeth, because of creeping anger he just couldn't shake off, caused by frustration over the unfairness of it all. "I always loved you. I never stopped. And I always will", he said earnest and dry. 

The Reaper shivered like a leaf while his stable form tore itself apart. Jack lifted his hand to Gabriels barely recognizable skull. The nanites tangled with his Fingers and crept up his arm. The Reaper stayed motionless in stubborn silence. 

Jack breathed deeply through his nose and stood straight, while his right hand dipped in his jacket to grab the thing that maybe was able to kill what he loved the most.  
"You know I will march just in there and fuck them up, if that thing kills you?", he sneered. The shapeless black nightmare opened one of its maws. "Don't be such a dramatic-... "

"I will break them, should you die", Jack snarled and bared his teeth like a wolf out for blood. The Reaper stared. "No more petty politics, no more plans and strategies. Even if I have to walk to every known base and shoot any and all of those bastards myself... I will. "

He would let hell rain down on them for the rest of his sad and pathetic life. 

Jack huffed as he nicked the little sphere out of his pocket and rolled it out of sight in his hand. "Now would be a good moment to start acting, Gabe", Jack muttered as he laid his thumb over the little notch that felt like a pressure point. Gabriel didn't move except that he leaned heavier in the warm touch of Jacks left hand. "Well", he rasped. "Let's pretend that I didn't see. Just... get on with it."

Jack never heard the Reapers voice sound so afraid. He wanted to break bones and make Talon bleed.  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath that lifted his stiff shoulders. "Ten minutes, you said?"  
The ninites clutched Jacks Arm and held on to the collar of his Jacket. "Well", Gabriel giggled in a uncomfortable high note. It made him sound unhinged as well as potentially dangerous. "Could be longer? Who knows?"

Jack clenched his teeth. "Remember what I said. Till we meet again."  
Quick like a snake and with a fearful, as well as desperate sound the Reaper lashed out and tried to reach the device in Jacks hand, right as Jacks thumb pressed down. 

Like Gabriel said. There was no noise at all. Just a discharge of boiling heat that burned the palm of his hand while a sudden electric charge made Jacks hair sizzle. 

But Gabriel...  
He stood still like a ghost, locked right into place. An electronic hum wasn't audible, but Jack could feel it. And then his figure started to... dissolve. Like a dried out sandcastle, was Jacks horrified random thought as he watched as the Reapers black limbs broke down bit by bit and crumbled to earth were they lost all their consistence and scattered like ash and dust. 

As the Reapers big skull dissolved through the fingers of Jacks left hand, the nanite dust felt roughly like Gunpowder between his fingers. Stepping back, Jack needed a lot of open mouthed deep breaths to prevent a useless panic attack. 

First he needed space not to tread on what he didn't want to think of as Gabriels remains. The heap of knocked out nano machines got even raised by the weak late summer winds and Jack tried not to be anxious. Because they were a swarm, weren't they? If they lost each other they would track the swarm and find home. Gabriel would be okay. 

Tears of pure horror burned in his remaining eye as he crouched down and just... tried to be scientific about this. Winston and Angela both would want to know the details. 

But there was nothing to gather but rough dull dust. Jack got aware of his time limit. As bad as he wanted to, under those circumstances he wasn't able to 'wait and see'. 

Sharp and determined he got back on his feet - and swirling nausea made him almost keel over. His remaining sight faded to black as his heart sized in massive constricting pain. Jack stumbled on quivering legs and leaned himself against the ruined facade of the wrecked gasoline station. 

The feeling in his whole chest was so stifling and hurt, that Jack thought it may even be a heart attack. Again his chest sized. Jack threw up badly, felt a burning pain in his whole body while he still could not see and his ears started to ring in this horrible familiar way. 

He followed the rough stonewall to the doorway and gathered his stuff as fast as he was able to. At least it wasn't a hard task to follow the road further southward, even in his useless state. 

Jack never looked back. 

All for an audience he wanted dead as fast as possible. 

* * *

A whole day went by. 

While the pains and sickness disappeared after just some hours, Jacks eyes and ears needed 24 of them to come back online. 

All this time he followed the road and maybe even walked right by the place he tried to find. As in the evening thick strains of rain came down, Jack hunched under a rock formation and just rested for a while. 

It was just then that his ComSign pinged a message.  
Jack had hope it was from Gabriel.  
It was from Sombra, however she was even able to contact him on this line. Well technically it was from no one, but the subject was an obnoxious violet smiley-thing. A video clip was attached to the message that read simply 'For your portfolio ;)'.

**Author's Note:**

> [Buy Me a Coffee](https://ko-fi.com/G2G088M9)


End file.
